


Brightmoon by Night

by Loriela



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), World of Darkness (Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Vampire, F/F, Glitra Plays Vampire the Masquerade
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-23
Updated: 2021-02-23
Packaged: 2021-03-13 04:02:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29645466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loriela/pseuds/Loriela
Summary: After playing far too many bright and happy campaigns at their RPG table, Catra and Glimmer decide it's time to play some good old World of DarknessAdora is not a fan of being forced to be a bad person, but she's definitely a fan of watching her best friends bond over being edgelords
Relationships: Catra/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 29





	Brightmoon by Night

**Author's Note:**

> This fantastic fic idea was the winner of January's Shortfic Poll on my blog, so you guys can go thank all the amazing people who suggested this and voted for this nonsense

“How about Vampire?” Glimmer offered.

“Ugh, too basic,” Catra groaned. “Everyone always picks that.”

“Yeah,” Glimmer replied, annoyed, “because it’s the good one”

It had been three weeks since Adora finished their last campaign, which was more than enough time for her players to start craving the next one. The one problem now was choosing what system they would play with.

The two of them had been arguing about what game they should play next for at least half an hour now. After what felt like an eternity they settled on a World of Darkness system, which Adora disagreed with on principle.

“Do we really have to play one of those?” She complained.

“Come on, Adora.” Catra replied, “you made us play that game about princesses and knights for ages.”

“I thought you guys liked it,” She said, sounding genuinely hurt.

“And we did,” Glimmer assured her. “But we can’t just keep playing the same sparkly happy stories all the time.”

Adora sighed. They were right, she may have gone too hard on the sweet high fantasy last campaign, so of course now they would want to go to the other extreme of the spectrum. It didn’t mean she had to enjoy it though.

She had never been a fan of grimdark stories, stories that painted people as assholes who only think of themselves, especially when she knew the world was filled with so many wonderful and kind people. She never understood the appeal of those stories and she refused to play into those tropes.

“Fine.” She eventually agreed, which earned her a relieved smile from Glimmer and a ‘fucking finally’ from Catra, “but I’m not DMing this”

“What!?” They asked in unison.

“I don’t feel comfortable telling this kind of story, I’m sorry.” Her apology was so genuine not even Catra could get mad at her.

“You can’t stop being a goody two shoes for three seconds can you?” She joked

“Nope!”

“You still wanna play?” Glimmer offered.

“Absolutely,” she replied with a bright grin. “You two better get ready for the nicest, kindest vampire you’ve ever met.”

Glimmer offered her a forced smile that made clear she expected nothing but disaster from this decision. Catra on the other hand decided to make her doubts apparent in a much more dramatic way.

“Ugh she’s so pure I think I might get si--” She cut herself off by leaning behind Glimmer and pretending to puke.

She jumped up and yelped as soon as she realized what she was doing. “What the hell, Catra?”

As those two once more delved into an argument, Adora sighed. At least she would have this train wreck to look forward to every week again.

It had been clear for anyone who knew Catra that whatever the hell she had with Glimmer was special from moment one. Sure, she loved infuriating everyone around her as a pass time, but when it came to Glimmer there was a passion to it. To most people this reads like pure focused hatred, but Adora knew Catra would never bother to spend this much time with someone she hated.

“So who is gonna DM it?” Glimmer eventually asked, snapping Adora out of her shipping reverie.

“Ah, shit, I didn’t think that far...” She admitted, “...I’ll try to find a replacement, I promise.” Though she herself had no idea who would be up for doing that.

* * *

The answer to that was, surprisingly, Mermista. Adora had no idea she was into RPGs, let alone World of Darkness, but apparently both her and Sea Hawk were great fans of being sexy goth assholes, so that setting suited them really well.

She had two requests though. First, that Sea Hawk would join your sessions, which everyone was in favor of - even if Catra loudly groaned about it a few times - and second, that they should all ‘dress the part’ at least for their first session. Though Adora found that to be an odd request, she was always down for weird ways to get in character.

So when the night of their first session arrived she showed up properly dressed as her character, wearing jeans and flannel. Which made her stick out like a sore thumb when everyone around her was wearing some shade of black and an ungodly amount of makeup.

Catra wore her nicest and fanciest - and only - suit, which was just put together enough to look classy, but just disheveled enough to look sexy. While Glimmer looked like she was ready to spend all night gossiping and laughing on the back of her gloved hands.

“What the fuck are you wearing?” Catra asked, disgusted.

“Something reasonable?”

“Why?” Glimmer followed up, “we’re vampires. We’re supposed to dress evily sexy, not reasonable.”

“I’m a gangrel,” She replied, annoyed. “It’s what my character would wear.”

“Ugh, she’s right,” Mermista reluctantly agreed with her, “I said to look the part, and lumberjack lesbian does fit her character.”

“Well since our good Adora has already decided to introduce her character, I believe I should do the same!” Sea Hawk stood up and posed dramatically. “I will be playing a member of clan Toreador, in a quest to live out the most beautiful tale of adventure, and daring ever written.”

Glimmer decided to take the next turn. “My character is a heiress to a big company, and a member of clan Ventrue.”

“Do you want me to turn around so you can stab my back now, or do you want me to pretend I’m surprised later?” Catra sassed.

“We haven’t even started,” Glimmer complained.

“I know, but I also know you Sparkles and you would not pick Ventrue if you didn’t want to be a manipulative bitch.”

Glimmer hesitated for a moment before finally saying, “...Maybe.”

“Can you two save the bickering for your characters?” Mermista said, already regretting her decision to DM this, “and what are you gonna play?”

Catra looked directly at Glimmer, an infuriatingly smug smile forming on her face as she answered, “Caitiff”

She had no idea what that meant, or why Catra was so smug about it, but the expression on Glimmer’s face made it very clear that those two had made it their mission to make each other - and by consequence everyone else - absolutely miserable.

Adora could not wait.

* * *

As expected, Catra and Glimmer’s characters were power hungry assholes ready to backstab each other at any given moment. What they didn’t expect was for Mermista to already have planned around this. For if there was one thing Mermista was good at, it was dealing with assholes.

They were just two sessions into her complex mystery plot, and she had already managed to force all their characters to begrudgingly work together, and was already on their way to making them care for each other, even if just for their own benefit.

They had been investigating what they thought was an abandoned house when Glimmer got shot through a wall and combat broke out. This was finally Adora’s time to shine and she delighted in showing off all the cool shit her character could do.

By the time she got back she found a very annoyed Catra doing her best to help Glimmer stand, a bloodied bullet in her hand.

“They got away,” Adora announced.

“Ah, great!” Catra complained “I could have caught them, but someone here had to go and get hurt.”

“I could have managed just fine, asshole.” Glimmer shot back as she pushed away from her.

“Of course you could,” Catra rolled her eyes, “and that’s why you were laying on the floor this whole time.”

“Can you guys not start fighting over stupid stuff again?” Adora pleaded, her joy over a combat well done now completely depleted.

The argument then turned to the nature of their attackers and what they might want from them. That led into more and more speculation on the mystery they were solving, which then led to new plans for everyone. Soon they were leaving the, now considerably more shot up, room to go fulfill their respective tasks.

It was only when everyone else had left that Glimmer declared, “I’m gonna approach Catra.”

“What do you want, Sparkles?” She asked, in character.

Glimmer sighed loudly as she braced herself, “I wanna thank you for helping me.” Catra opened her mouth, before any snarky comments could leave it she added, “yes, I know I’m a bitch, but I’m not ungrateful.”

Catra gave her a genuine smile, before reminding herself that everyone else at the table could see her showing emotions, and immediately covered it up. “Wow, Sparkles, your vampire is less of a bitch than you.”

“Ugh! nevermind...” Glimmer groaned and did her best to divert her attention to the game.

Oh, this was gonna be a long campaign.

* * *

“I call bullshit!” Glimmer complained. “There’s no way she has that many disciplines”

“There’s no way she has what?”Adora asked, confused.

Glimmer had been ranting for a while about all of the ways Catra had been so infuriating and annoying, and it was starting to get hard for Adora to follow. They were just planning on spending some time together at Glimmer’s, outside of their usual game nights, but somehow - because Glimmer brought it up - the subject of the game came up and somehow - because Glimmer also brought it up - so came the subject of Catra.

“With our starting points, and everything we’ve gained so far, there’s no way she has as many disciplines as she claims she has,” Glimmer explained, “she keeps talking about all the cool things she can do, but so far she has done nothing besides look evil and sexy.”

“Her character you mean?” Adora asked, “and isn’t looking evil and sexy a vampire power?”

Glimmer seemed to decide to ignore that first comment, and any implications that came with it, and just focus on the second one, “it’s called Presence, and I don’t think she’s been using that either. She is a Caitiff, she can have any combo of disciplines, and we can’t know what she’s capable of until she does something.”

“Or we ask her,” Adora offered.

“But if I do that I admit that she got into my head with whatever game she’s playing!” She replied.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure she’s playing Vampire the Masquerade...” Adora said, playing dumb to mess with Glimmer, “...I mean your character can probably ask, you know, for tactical reasons.”

“But then I have no way of knowing if she’s telling the truth.” She shot back, before flopping down on her couch.

“You know, you could just ask her to stop messing with you, if you want.” Adora offered, genuinely worried that her friend was really over stressing herself right now. “Catra may be an asshole, but I don’t think she actually wants to make you angry, or uncomfortable...”

Glimmer looked conflicted for a moment. Like there was an answer ready at the tip of her tongue, but now that she had to say it she questioned it. Eventually she sighed, and propped herself up a bit so she could talk. “I know. She’s only…” She pondered for a moment, “...a third of the bitch she pretends she is.”

“I’d say a quarter.”

“But I don’t think...” She paused again, and Adora’s eyebrows shot up as she seemed to know exactly what she would say next, “...I don’t think I want her to stop”

When next she looked at Adora she was beaming. Not the smug smirk that she expected, but the bright and beautiful smile that only Adora could manage.

“What?” Glimmer asked, embarrassed.

“Oh! Uh...” Only then did Adora realize the face she was making, “I’m just happy you, and Catra are getting along”

“Sure,” Glimmer collapsed back on the couch again. “Does she usually show that she’s ‘getting along’ by being absolute menace?”

“Yes, actually.”

She watched as realization slowly dawned in Glimmer’s eyes, and a single sound escaped her mouth.

“Oh.”

* * *

Adora wasn’t sure if the two of them were doing this on purpose, but the longer the campaign went on, the more Catra and Glimmer started working together. It started with a compliment or two about each other’s unique set of skills, later it evolved into whispered schemes and plots. Now Adora was pretty sure that those two had become a second conspiracy on top of the one they were already trying to solve.

Together they have organized the main event of tonight’s session, a ball - why were vampires so into that stuff? - where they would finally catch the conspirators behind all this and act as the grand finale of this campaign.

Adora was equal parts excited to see her friends working together like this and absolutely terrified by their ruthless efficiency. She was also pretty sure she caught them cackling maniacally out of session once and she was pretty happy that they were in such good terms that they got to spend time out of session, but also worried that she might have accidentally unleashed a new evil upon the world.

“You remember your part, princess?” Catra asked. Her character had taken the habit of calling her that as an ironic nickname.

Adora adjusted her suit, and answered, “keep an eye on the guests and don’t look suspicious. I got it.” She looked around to see if anyone was listening in, “what about you?”

Catra looked, and Adora didn’t need to turn her head to know exactly where she was looking when she spoke, “I guess I’ll have my hands full tonight...”

Adora took a long, deep breath, and pinched the bridge of her nose. She found it hilarious, but her character was having exactly none of that. “Please tell me you don’t mean it literally.”

“Now that is up to Sparkles.”

Mermista loudly groaned, and gestured for them to move along before she commited murder. Glimmer, on the other hand, was almost reaching over the table to strangle Catra, an effect only mildly diminished by her embarrassed blush.

Luckily for their characters, they had all split to make their preparations around the ball, so they wouldn’t have to listen to Catra and Glimmer lowkey flirt for half an hour. Unfortunately for the players, they were still sitting at the same table as those two.

Once the first dance started, no one was safe.

“May I have the honor of this dance, oh Lady of Darkness?” Catra asked in mock reverence, offering Glimmer a hand.

“So that’s how you treat me when there are people watching.” She replied, somewhat amused as she took that hand in hers. “Almost makes me miss the insults.”

“Aww not a fan of the nickname?” Catra teased as she led her into the dance floor “Thankfully I have plenty of those. How about Princess of The Night? Queen of Schemes? Mistress of Lies?”

“How about Glimmer?”

“Hmmm,” Catra pretended to be in deep thought as they gently swayed through the dance. With a quick movement she dipped her, holding their faces close as she smirked “How about ‘Lov--”

“Ugh, spare me...” Mermista groaned. “I’m just gonna move the night along, so things actually start happening.”

No one wanted to argue, and soon their ball turned into the stage for their big moment. Their plan had been executed masterfully, and by the end of the night all the conspirators had been revealed. Some were caught on the spot, some tried to flee, but one of them decided it was time for a fight.

Adora had made the unfortunate decision to run after some of the fleeing culprits, and now had to turn into a panther just to maybe get back to the big fight within the next few turns. Meanwhile Catra, Glimmer, and Sea Hawk fought valiantly, they just had one little problem.

“What do you mean you can’t fight!” Glimmer shouted.

“I can,” Catra corrected “I’m just shit at it.”

“You couldn’t shut up about how you were better than even Adora!” She countered, still completely furious.

“Well I lied, Glimmer!” Catra finally admitted “I lied about everything!”

“Why? What did you have to gain?”

“I--”

“So, did you forget you’re getting shot at?” Mermista interrupts, “get your turn going, or I’m gonna assume you spent all of it talking.”

Once more they tried their best, not even to win, but just to hold the bad guys back long enough for Adora to arrive again with some backup so they could turn the tide. 

Yet the tide took too long to turn, and by the time their victory was assured, a terrible price had been paid.

“Don’t you, fucking, dare die on me!” Glimmer cried.

“Glimmer...” The name formed in Catra’s lips weak and struggling “...I never had anyone. No clan, no friends, no powers. I knew I wasn’t worth anything to this group, but I just couldn’t bear being dragged along out of pity. I lied to you, because I couldn’t bear having you look down on me.”

“Catra,” tears escaped Glimmer’s eyes as she held her, “you idiot.”

A pathetic little chuckle was her response, “at least I managed to do something good at the end.”

“Catra...” She cried again as she held her face close to hers. Except she wasn’t just holding her character’s face, she was holding actual real Catra like that, and she was staring deeply into her eyes in a way that made evil Adora blush, and she wasn’t even the target of that look.

Glimmer cleared her throat, “I uh… I lean in, and kiss her'' she mumbled, before quickly making her way back to her seat, avoiding eye contact at all costs.

“Okay then,” Mermista awkwardly interjected. Soon she moved the plot along towards its conclusion. 

By the end of the night everyone seemed pretty happy with the game. Everyone but Glimmer and Catra who both seemed to be off in their own world, trying as hard as they could not to acknowledge the other in any way.

They were packing their stuff to leave when Catra finally seemed to snap back to reality, or to just snap in general.

“Glimmer, you little shit!” Catra grabbed her and turned her so they would be staring at each other, faces just as close as they had been before. “Don’t you chicken out on me again!”

Glimmer’s face seemed to make a journey from surprised, to flustered, to angry, to surprised again, and finally to the grin of someone who just got challenged to do something really stupid. She advanced the few inches that separated them, and kissed Catra without a hint of hesitation.

Mermista and Sea Hawk turned away and began packing their stuff even faster, while Adora continued to look at them with a beaming smile.

“D’aww,” she cooed, “I knew you two liked each other.”

Their annoyed groans was all the response she got and deserved.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this mess and want more quality SPOP content go check out [shera-dnd.tumblr.com](https://shera-dnd.tumblr.com/)


End file.
